UK economy defies gloom with surprise surge in growth

Restaurants and hotels suffered from sterling’s poor position but business services such as accountancy and law more than made up the differenceCarl Court / Getty Images

The UK economy unexpectedly surged in the fourth quarter, with annual growth almost four times as fast as economists had expected after the Brexit vote.

Official figures showed that the economy grew by 0.5 per cent between October and December, ahead of expectations of 0.4 per cent growth, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The expansion was led by strong growth in the UK’s dominant services sector, which makes up about 80 per cent of the economy. It comes after Britain’s employment rate hit a record high this week and has led a number of economists to revise up their forecasts for 2018.

Howard Archer, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said: “This was a significantly better performance than had been widely…

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